Blank Check
Blank Check (released in Europe as Blank Cheque) is a 1994 live-action movie directed by Rupert Wainwright, starring Brian Bonsall, Karen Duffy, Miguel Ferrer, Tone Lōc, Michael Lerner and James Rebhorn and released by Walt Disney Pictures.
The story begins when bank robber Carl Quigley escapes from jail. Soon after his prison break, Quigley enters a warehouse and recovers $1,000,000 he had hidden there sometime before his arrest. He plans to exchange the bills through a corrupt bank employee using checks. After the meeting, Quigley runs over Preston Waters' bicycle while he was riding it in the bank's parking lot. Pressed for time as he sees a police car patrolling the area, Quigley gives the boy a signed blank check and tells him to give it to his dad so they can buy him a new bike. Instead, the boy writes himself a check for $1,000,000 and uses the money to go on a spending spree.
Oh, and there's a romance subplot involving a 30-year-old and a 12-year-old.
Not to be confused with the Art James Game Show of the same name that ran on NBC for 26 weeks in 1975.
- Butt Monkey: Poor, poor Quigley. He escaped from prison, got his savings stolen by a 12-year-old boy, discovers that all his money is gone, and finally goes to prison again with charges of laundry, forgeries and everything else that said 12-year-old boy did.
- His "savings" was money he had stolen, it wasn't like it was a bunch of pennies he'd saved up since he was eight.
- Karma Houdini: Preston stole and spent the money from Quigley, and possibly forged the signature for the castle deed. In the end, Quigley is going to prison for a crime he didn't commit, and Preston is going home, even when a FBI Agent knows everything.
- Inflation Negation:
- Preston is given just $1 to spend at the carnival. He ends up finding only one ride worth that little.
- For that matter, Quigley is genuinely shocked by how Preston was able to spend a million dollars in a week, despite having just chased the kid through his privately-owned castle and around the private amusement park/arcade he had installed throughout it.
- Invented Individual: Preston's alter ego "Mr. Macintosh".
- The Jailbait Wait: Jarringly set up.
- Jerkass:
- Preston's father, and to a lesser extent his mother. Dad's a capitalist douchebag who only cares about his sons as long as they're trying to earn money, hence he essentially lets Preston's older brothers be complete assholes to him simply because they're starting up their own business and he isn't. Never mind the fact that Preston is approximately 12. The most jaw-dropping moment, however, is probably when Preston's bike is run over by a car and his parents are more concerned with the fact that he "didn't take care of his property" than, you know, the fact that their son was almost hit by a car. They then proceed to ground him for saying that the way they treat him compared to his brothers is unfair, totally unaware that they just proved him right.
- The bitchy party organiser who steals money from Preston without letting him get a word in.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Despite being a capitalist douchebag, Preston's father's assessment of his son turns out to be entirely correct. His son lacks an ounce of responsibility, even for a 12-year-old. Over the course of the movie his son was given a million dollars and he wasted the money away on junk food that he cannot possibly consume and a castle he cannot possibly make use of in about a week without realizing it.
- Line-of-Sight Name: Preston comes up with "Mr. Macintosh" because he has a Macintosh computer.
- Mock Millionaire
- Most Writers Are Adults: In the opinion of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, this is the main problem with the movie. Preston blows his fortune on stuff an adult would want, not stuff a kid would want. What kind of 12-year-old dreams of hosting black-tie parties or taking adult women out to fancy restaurants?
- Motor Mouth: The party organiser.
- Old Shame: Rupert Wainwright doesn't like talking much about this movie.
- Parent Service: Shay Stanley.
- Product Placement: Two words: Mr. Macintosh.
- Shotacon: A rare Western example with Shay Stanley.
- The Unfavorite: It's clear that Preston is this.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Preston, which is strange considering his dad is a complete Jerkass.